Boney James at home with jazz and R&B

By Paul Nasella, For Time Out

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Chart-topping sax man Boney James will bring his eclectic blend of R&B, Latin, and jazz to the stage of the Keswick Theatre April 24.

A three-time Grammy Award nominee — for Best Pop Instrumental Album, 2001 and 2004, and Best Traditional R&B Performance, 2009 — James has been referred to as one of the most successful instrumental artists of our time. He is the recipient of a Soul Train Award for Best Jazz Album and has also been honored with an NAACP Image Award nomination for Best Jazz Album.

To date, nine of James’ albums have reached No. 1 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart and two have reached the top 10 on the R&B Albums Chart. He has also accumulated four certified gold records in addition to selling more than three million albums worldwide.

Since late March, James has taken to the road as part of a 27-date tour that will take him across the country, including dates at sea on the Smooth Jazz Cruise in both October 2013 and January 2014.

“Oh, we love it there,” James said of Keswick Theatre in a recent telephone interview from his rehearsal studio in Los Angeles. “We’ve had some great shows at the Keswick. The last few shows sold really well. We’ve got a lot of great fans there. I’m real excited to get back in Philly.”

Known for his compelling live performances, James explained that his upcoming 100-minute show will be completely different compared to previous performances, even including a few surprises along the way.

“This is a brand-new show from the last time we were there,” James said. “I added seven new songs to the show.…I’ve also gone back into my catalog and found some old gems we hadn’t played live, some songs that were hits that we never played live.

“It feels really new and fresh and, just in general, people who’ve never seen me before people, are often surprised that they think it’s going to be a jazz show — it’s going to be a close-your-eyes kind of thing — but I came up playing with R&B bands. So, we really bring more of a party collaborative of the audience atmosphere to our gigs in general.”

James said those in attendance at his upcoming Keswick show can also expect to hear a number of songs from his latest effort, “The Beat,” released April 9, 2013, on Concord Records.

“‘The Beat’ is actually the English translation of a Sergio Mendes song ‘Batcucada,’” James explained. “My original idea was just to do a Latin sort of themed record, but I messed around with the arrangement of this old Sergio Mendes song, sort of turned it into a mashup of R&B rhythm and that was sort of the inspiration of the whole record.

“The whole record is that way, where I’m blurring the lines playing Latin music and R&B music and mixing up different rhythms and forms.”

“I was feeling very creative,” he explained of impetus behind the album. “I actually started making the record by myself with my own money for the first three months or so, and that gave me a sense of freedom — not like anyone was waiting for the record, so I would go out of that energy which is reflected in the album in that period.

“I did hook up with Rick Braun again. He and I have a hit record together as a duo back in 2001 called ‘Shake It Up.’ It was really great to reconnect with him, and Raheem DeVaughn has always been one of my on-top-of-the-list of things that I’ve been wanting to work with. I had written a song and thought it needed a vocal.

“All at the same time, he wrote me on Twitter and started following me on Twitter. I reached out to him and said, ‘Do you want to collaborate together?’ and he said, ‘Of course I would.’

“So I sent him the track and like a few days later, he sent me back the finished thing that he had done and it ended up on the record. That was a real huge thrill.”